Microsoft released its Windows 10 Anniversary Update yesterday and most users are now getting it through Windows Update or through the ISOs that the company has made available. But those in the enterprise and business environments might need to wait another couple of weeks to get the update.
According to the Technet blog, Windows 10 Anniversary Update, also known as version 1607, is available from the Volume Licensing Service Center or from the MSDN Subscriptions Center. As the ever-reliable Mary Jo Foley first spotted, if you’ve already deployed Windows 10, then the Anniversary Update will become available on August 16th through the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or the System Center Configuration Manager.
Also noteworthy is that Windows 10 version 1607 will become part of the Current Branch for Business sometime around December.
So what does Windows 10 Anniversary Update bring to IT pros? Beside the regular end-user features, there are quite a few improvements designed for the enterprise. Here’s the official list:
- Windows Information Protection (WIP), which helps to protect enterprise apps and data on enterprise-owned and personal devices against potential data leakage without otherwise interfering with the user experience.
- Improvements to Windows Hello for Business, which now includes both Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport.
- Simplified provisioning with Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD), and the ability to install Windows ICD with the full Windows Assessment Deployment Kit (Windows ADK), or by itself.
- The ability to connect to a remote PC that is joined to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
- Improved taskbar management, including the ability to add and remove pinned apps from the taskbar as an administrator, while still allowing users to pin/unpin apps and change the order of pinned apps on the taskbar after the enterprise configuration is applied.
- Expanded mobile device management (MDM) capabilities.
- Shared PC mode, which optimizes Windows 10 for shared use scenarios, such as touchdown spaces in an enterprise or temporary customer use in a retail business.
- The inclusion of App-V and UE-V as Windows features (instead of inclusion in MDOP, which required a separate download and installation).
- Windows Defender enhancements, including the release of Windows Defender Offline (which allows you to run offline scans), Block at First Sight (which dramatically improves detection times for new malware), enhanced notifications, and potentially unwanted application (PUA) detection.
Source: TechNet